The Centennial History of the Civil War: The Coming Fury, Terrible Swift Sword, Never Call Retreat by CATTON, Bruce - 1961

New York: Doubleday & Company, 1961. Hardcover. Complete 3-volume set. Small 4to. Two-tone cloth with black and silver lettering, pictorial dust jackets. 565pp; xi, 559pp; xi, 555pp. Map endpapers, maps (some color). Near fine to very good/very good. Minor jacket edgewear; some spotting to top page edges. A tight and attractive first edition of this classic trilogy, with fine autograph addition: Neatly tipped into the first volume is a Typed Note Signed from Catton, 1p, 5½" X 8½", New York, NY, n.y. Addressed to noted Lincoln/Civil War scholar Arnold F. Gates (1914-93). Near fine. On letterhead of "New York State Civil War Centennial Commission" citing Catton as editor, he writes this officer of the New York City Civil War Round Table: "Here you are, with the form all filled out. As you can see, the box in which the book came fell all apart somewhere en route, but the contents are undefiled." Signed simply "Bruce" boldly in pencil. Interesting if cryptic. E.B. Long (in Nevins' "Civil War Books") calls this trio "One of the outstanding literary achievements of the Centennial years; Catton here demonstrates his prodigious ability to tell a story well without neglecting detail," while David Eicher calls it "masterfully written simple history, lightly documented and sweeping in its overview of a multitude of complex events...." NEVINS II, 7. EICHER 736.